How it Should Have Happened

Disclaimer:I'm not J. K. Rowling and, sadly, I don't own her characters –or brain. –The citation belongs to her, of course. I only own my imagination and this fanfic. There's no intention in inflicting any copyright.

The crowd was thinning: only a little knot of people remained below in the Room of Requirement, and Harry joined them. Mrs. Weasley was struggling with Ginny. Around them stood Lupin, Fred, George, Bill and Fleur.

"You're underage!" Mrs. Weasley shouted at her daughter as Harry approached. "I won't permit it! The boys, yes, but you, you've got to go home!"

"I won't"

Ginny's hair flew as she pulled her arm out of her mother's grip.

"I'm in Dumbledore's Army –"

"A teenagers' gang!"

"A teenagers' gang that's about to take him on, which no one else has dared to!" said Fred.

"She's sixteen!" shouted Mrs. Wesley. "She's not old enough! What you two were thinking, bringing her with you –"

Fred and George looked slightly ashamed of themselves.

"Mum's right, Ginny," said Bill gently. "You can't do this. Everyone under-age will have to leave, it's only right."

"I can't go home!" Ginny shouted, angry tears sparkling in her eyes. "My whole family's here, I can't stand waiting here alone and not knowing and –"

Her eyes met Harry's for the first time. She looked at him beseechingly, but he shook his head and she turned away bitterly.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 30.

Harry couldn't help it. He couldn't stand to see her like this. He began to walk towards Ginny and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Gin, I'm sorry, but I need you safe. If you got harmed, I'd… I…"

She turned around and looked at him with sad eyes.

"You know you mean the world to me, Ginny."

"Do I?"

"Yes, of course you do. If something happened to you…" He looked at her in the eyes, begging her to understand. "I need to know you are okay. I need someone to return to." Harry could sense the other inhabitants of the room's stares prickle the back of his neck. He saw, out of the corner of his vision, their open-mouthed expressions.

"I'm going to be fine," Ginny insisted. "You know I'm perfectly capable of figh–"

"Wasn't Mad-Eye perfectly capable of fighting? Wasn't Dumbledore? Wasn't Sirius? But they got killed, anyway!"

"But –"

"Please Ginny. I love you! It would kill me if you… if you…" He couldn't bring himself to say 'died.' Regarding Ginny's brain –and everyone else's, for that matter, – all it could register was the words 'I love you.' He had never told her so. She suspected it, of course, but he had never told her those three little words. Even in the middle of the war, surrounded by despair, she felt her heart sore.

"I love you, too," she said with glistening eyes. Then, she grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, lowering his head so that their eyes were level and told him, "You'd better return to me in one piece, or else I swear to you, I will hunt you down and give you the earful of your life." Then, Harry felt himself be pulled even closer to her as she kissed him. At that moment, he did not care that he room had a handful of people in it and kissed Ginny back.

When they drew apart, Harry was conscious of the Weasleys' looks of shock at his confession of love. Fred's mouth had dropped open so wide, it looked like he had forgotten how to close it. At that moment, however, the entrance of the tunnel that led to Hogsmeade burst open and a tall, red-headed figure climbed out, straightening his horn-rimmed glasses as he did so. It was Percy.

I hope you liked it! Thanks for reading! And thanks Snowfeather4876 for being my beta.